(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 28 July 2000 IAPA press release, presenting the organisationâs report on attacks on the press over the past three months: IAPA Executive Committee Protests Attacks on Press in Past 3 Months MIAMI, Florida (July 28, 2000) – The Inter American Press Association’s Executive Committee, during a meeting at the […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 28 July 2000 IAPA press release, presenting the organisationâs report on attacks on the press over the past three months:
IAPA Executive Committee Protests Attacks on Press in Past 3 Months
MIAMI, Florida (July 28, 2000) – The Inter American Press Association’s Executive Committee, during a meeting at the Association’s new headquarters in Miami today, reviewed attacks on the press in the Western Hemisphere that have occurred over the past three months. Following is the text of its findings.
Crimes against journalists in the Americas have continued in recent months. Between the last report in April to date, eight new cases have occurred, in which eight colleagues lost their lives merely for doing their job of keeping the people informed. According to reports received from our regional vice chairmen, four of these murders were committed in Mexico and the other four in Haiti, Paraguay, Guatemala and Colombia.
In addition to these murders, which themselves alone would be sufficient reason for concern, are other violations of, and threats to, the right to the free expression of thought that have occurred in the past three months in the majority of our countries. The perpetrators are resorting to a wide range of methods of attack, from violent physical assault to malicious accusations of a personal nature against journalists who distinguish themselves by the steadfast and courageous manner in which they practice their profession. Of special note are the attacks and personal insults that have been launched in Uruguay against IAPA First Vice President Danilo Arbilla. As our president, Tony Pederson, has said, “Danilo has been a distinguished journalist and vigorous defender of freedom of the press, trusted by his friends and colleagues, and he will continue his role as leader when he becomes an excellent president of the IAPA in early October.”
It is essential meanwhile for us to keep a close watch on other situations that endanger freedom of expression. We are faced with an Argentina where El Liberal, a newspaper in Santiago del Estero province, is being subjected all too frequently to harassment by the local government; a Cuba that has shown no improvement whatsoever in press freedom, where journalists were beaten up and those in prison are being given no medical attention; and Ecuador debating a number of legislative bills that if passed would amount to real obstacles to a free press; a Panama where certain laws restricting the right to information remain on the books; a Peru where the independent news media are facing serious and unjustified threats which violate freedom of expression; a Venezuela that remains between the devil and the deep blue sea, where independent news media are the target of repeated threats and invective from the authorities; a Colombia beset by terrorism, which continues claiming the lives of press men and women; and so on in practically every corner of the region.
Attached are reports from various countries of the region, giving more details about the main incidents that have occurred in the past three months.
Major developments affecting press freedom in the Americas from April 2000 to date
Argentina:
The daily El Liberal of Santiago del Estero complained that on at least two occasions its telephones were tapped. The most recent occurrence, on July 5, coincided with the publication of reports about irregularities in the call for bids and later delivery of public housing. Following the reports, the government took reprisals against this and other critical media by withdrawing official advertising.
Distributors in Santiago del Estero of the La Voz del Interior of Cordoba were threatened by supporters of the state governor after the paper criticized him. In another incident in May, a mob burned most of the press run of the daily La Gaceta of Tucumán in northern Argentina and destroyed several distribution centers.
Bolivia:
Ronald Méndez Alpire, a reporter who has produced a number of investigative reports on corruption and drug trafficking, was shot and injured by an unidentified assailant.
In April, acting under a state of emergency, the army shut down radio and television broadcasts for three hours. Several journalists and media workers received anonymous threats.
Brazil:
In March, the Chamber of Deputies threw out a provision in the Proposed Constitutional Amendment for reform of the judiciary of the press law bill that would prohibit public officials, police officers, district attorneys, public prosecutors, judges and officers of the courts from providing information to the press. The bill, seen as a gag law, is now due to be sent to the Senate.
On June 7, the Federal Senate’s Constitution and Justice Committee approved a bill to ban cigarette and liquor advertising in all news media. The bill now goes to the Senate and Chamber of Deputies.
Chile:
On May 16, the legislature threw out a bill for a press law that sought to remove the protection from libel action that politicians and public officials enjoy. The bill included proposed provisions on the right to rectification and clarification, greater access to information and elimination of privileges granted to the authorities under the State Security Law.
Colombia:
A wave of violence against individual journalists and the media continues. Murder, kidnapping and forced exile have became almost routine for the press.
On July 4, journalist Marisol Revelo Baron was murdered in Tumaco, Nariño province. El Espectador reporter Jineth Bedoya Lima was kidnapped on May 25 and beaten up before being freed. Also kidnapped was Guillermo Cortés of the radio news program “Hora Cero.” Several journalists went into exile, among them Ignacio Gomez of El Espectador, Francisco Santos of El Tiempo, MarÃa Alejandra González Mosquera and Mario Parra.
Cuba:
The month of July has been characterized by arrests and an unleashing of violence against independent journalists. Marilyn Lahera and José Antonio Reinier of the Santiago Press agency were beaten up by police in Santiago during a rally marking the drowning deaths of passengers abroad the tugboat 13 de Marzo, sunk by the Cuban armed forces six years ago off Havana. The passengers were trying to flee the country.
On July 15, Interior Ministry agents took journalist Ricardo González Alfonso to a residence on the outskirts of the city and interrogated him for six hours in a bid to enlist him as a secret agent for the government within the independent press. He later reported on the incident publicly.
On a positive note, journalist VÃctor Rolando Arroyo was freed after spending six months in the Km 5-1/2 Prison in the western Cuban province of Pinar del RÃo. Three other journalists remain in prison, two of them – Joel de Jesús DÃaz and Manuel González Castellanos – have been taken ill and are receiving no medical attention. Bernardo Arévalo Padron, who is serving a six-year term at Ariza Prison in the central province of Cienfuegos, has been ordered to do hard labor at the prison camp.
Ecuador:
Three bills have been submitted to Congress that threaten press freedom. One is the Economic Transformation of Ecuador bill (known as Trole II), which would prohibit anyone who runs or owns a company providing a public service from owning a bank or news media outlet. Another is the Child and Adolescent Code bill, which seeks to require the media to publish news concerning children and adolescents every day and to carry news in the Quechua language. The third is the bill for a Professional Journalist Solidarity Fund Act which would create a not-for-profit body to provide aid to journalists falling on hard times. It would be funded by revenue from a 0.2% tax on paid advertising in all news media.
United States:
The U.S. Supreme Court issued two important decisions in May. First, it upheld a ruling stipulating that Internet service providers are no legally or financially responsible for any libel that may occur in e-mail or bulletin board messages. Secondly, it declared as unconstitutional and a violation of the First Amendment a Congressional bill seeking to require cable television operators to block transmission of programs with explicit sexual content (indecent and obscene) or that they be shown during restrict hours – between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.
Guatemala:
News photographer Roberto MartÃnez Castañeda of the daily La Prensa was killed on April 27 by a private security guard during protest demonstrations against a city bus fare hike. Three reporters and television cameramen were injured.
The director of the Centro de Reportes Informativos (Cerigua), Ileana Alamilla, and her staff received repeated death threats.
Haiti:
The murder of journalist Jean Leopold Dominique, owner of Radio Haiti Inter, on April 3, was another mortal blow to the press. Just before his death, Dominique had leveled criticism at “political sectors that prevent the advance of democracy” in Haiti. Since then, his wife, journalist Michel Montas, the radio’s director, said she had received a number of death threats.
On April 4, Radio Unidad was vandalized by heavily-armed masked intruders who severely damaged electrical installations and recording studios and made off with transmission equipment. The community radio station Vwa Peyizan Sid, run by Catholic priest Yves Edmon, suffered a similar attack on May 3.
Mexico:
During the past three months four journalists were murdered, with no arrests to date in any of the cases. On July 19, the publisher of the newspaper La Verdad in Atizapán de Zaragoza, Hugo Sánchez Eustaquio, was found dead three months after he was kidnapped. Several news photographers were beaten up and threatened, among them TV Azteca reporter Lilly Téllez, who was assaulted but escaped unhurt.
On June 17, William Uicab, a cameraman for Canal 8 cable television in Chetumal, Quintana Roo state, was murdered.
On June 15, Freddy Secundino Sánchez, a stringer for Epoca magazine, was kidnapped, tortured and threatened by assailants believed to be judicial police officers.
On April 28, José RamÃrez Puente a report and announcer for Radio Net in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua state, was murdered and on April 9, Pablo Pineda GaucÃn, a reporter for the daily La Opinion of Matamoros, Tamaulipas state, was killed.
Nicaragua:
The daily La Prensa received a demand for payment of almost a half million dollars in taxes following an audit carried out by the Revenue Department, seen as a reprisal for reports it had published on government corruption. La Prensa and television station Canal 2 were subjected to a public smear campaign waged by pro-government news media, in which it was urged to pay its taxes. The government continues discriminating against critical media in the placement of official advertising.
Panama:
A warrant for the arrest of the editor of the daily El Siglo, Carlos Singares, was issued in late June by Attorney General José Antonio Sossa as an apparent reprisal for a report Singares wrote in the paper on June 22 in which he said that the official had engaged in improper conduct.
The IAPA pointed out the contradiction between the attorney general’s ordering Singares to be held in custody for eight days and President Mireya Moscoso’s repeal on December 20, 1999, of Law 11 of 1978 which had authorized the jailing of journalists.
Paraguay:
The state of exception (state of emergency) declared following the aborted coup d’etat restricted freedom of the press. A number of journalists were arrested. Several radio stations critical of the governments were destroyed, while others had their telephone lines cut and were threatened with being shut down.
Even after the emergency measures were lifted, verbal threats against the independent press continued and legal action against journalists intensified.
On April 14, Benito Ramon Jara Guzmán, correspondent of radio station Iby Yaú in the city of Bernardino Caballero, north of Asuncion, was murdered.
Peru:
Several news media and individual journalists were subjected to systematic pressure, threats and harassment by certain sectors of the government and intelligence services. The financial, tax, advertising and labor difficulties of newspapers, magazines and television stations have become tools for self-censorship or alignment with the government.
The campaign of spurious legal action against El Comercio continued. This has coincided with the paper’s allegations of mass falsification of signatures of groups supporting the ruling alliance in the run-up to presidential elections.
Television station Canal N, an affiliate of Global Television Canal 13 of Huaraz, and El Comercio de Cusco were fined for broadcasting election polls during a legal blackout period.
The printing equipment of two anti-government newspapers was ordered seized. There were complaints that under pressure of the government, several radio news programs were forced to stop broadcasting and a newspaper in the township of San Borja was shut down.
Puerto Rico:
Nine journalists were arrested while covering a protest by local people against the use of the U.S. Marines base on Vieques Island for military maneuvers.
Legal proceedings were begun for repeal of statutes making libel a criminal offense.
Dominican Republic:
A special commission named by President Leonel Fernández completed a study to amend and modernize the Press Law dating from 1962. A bill for such amendment, based on the 10 principles of the Declaration of Chapultepec, is to be sent to Congress by the president.
Uruguay:
Continuing protests by the IAPA and its first vice president, Danilo Arbilla, editor of the Montevideo weekly Búsqueda, over discrimination in the placement of official advertising has led to a smear campaign being waged against him, in which he has been accused of drug money laundering, by a number of left-wing and sensational media and by the police chief. After the latter threatened Arbilla with legal action but failed to back up his charges, he was fired and the case was shelved. The Uruguayan Press Association reported that Búsqueda’s telephones were being tapped.
On May 2, sports commentator Julio César Sánchez Padilla, host of the program “Estado Uno” broadcast on state-run Channel 5 TV, was shot and injured in one of several attacks by unidentified assailants.
Venezuela:
The media, editors and reporters continue to come under verbal attacks and receive threats from senior government officials.
On July 9, the publisher of La Razon, Pablo Lopez Ulacio, was ordered held under house arrest, but the judge who issued the warrant was dismissed from the bench five days later. On July 18, Graudi Villegas, the new judge named to hear the libel case against Lopez Ulacio, upheld a prior injunction prohibiting Lopez Ulacio from publishing any reference to the complainant in the case, TobÃas Carrero, an executive of a multinational insurance company, or anything related to the proceedings.
Impunity:
A total of 225 journalists have been murdered in the past 12 years, 15 since the IAPAâs General Assembly in Houston last October – six in Colombia, four in Mexico, two in Guatemala and one each in Haiti, Paraguay and Uruguay.
